Doku Umarov vows to kill more civilians in ‘war’ with Russia

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Islamic Caucasus Emirates leader Doku Umarov vows to wage total war on Russia.

The leader of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Caucasus Emirates has recently vowed to wage total war and kill more Russian civilians.

In a videotape released yesterday by Kavkaz Center, a propaganda outlet of the Islamic Caucasus Emirates, Doku Umarov, the terror group’s emir, is seen sitting against a tree wearing camouflage and an ammunition vest. Propped against the tree next to Umarov is what appears to be a US-made M-16 assault rifle. Kavkaz Center provides a full English-language translation of Umarov’s statement, which is in Russian.

On the videotape, Umarov castigates the majority of Muslims for standing by idly while Russian security forces hunt down members of the Caucasus Emirate. Umarov compares the Muslims in the Caucasus to a group of black bulls who expel a white bull from the pack and in doing so weaken themselves to the wolves.

Umarov then defends his decision to release the videotape of Saifullah, the suicide bomber who carried out the deadly Jan. 24 suicide attack at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow that killed 35 people and wounded scores more. Umarov says he received criticism for releasing the video, as a sister and brother of the suicide bomber were arrested, and he states that he only released the video after he was certain Russian authorities were aware of the terrorist’s identity.

Umarov took credit for the Domodedovo suicide attack in a video released less than two weeks after the attack. In that same video, he and Saifullah were seen with Khamzat, the commander of the Riyad-us-Saliheen Martyr Brigade.

In the video released yesterday, Umarov justifies the intentional targeting of civilians at Domodedovo, claiming the attack was part of “war” and is no different than Russian actions during the two Chechen wars.

“It [the Domodedovo attack] is war, that is war!,” Umarov said. “And the infidels, Putin and his stooges, his military stooges, knew that we did not have any fighter jets or Apache helicopters, that there were no anti-aircraft batteries at the airport. But an airport is a strategic facility which must be destroyed. Therefore, they attacked, dropped tons of bombs at the beginning of both wars.”

“So let Russia know that it is at war with Caucasian Muslims and that we strike back exactly on strategic targets, and that such strikes will continue in the future exactly on strategic targets!” he continued. “Everybody should know – war is war, and wars have their own methods, be they good or bad.”

For more information on the Islamic Caucasus Emirate and its war with Russia, see LWJ report, 35 killed in suicide attack at Moscow airport.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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12 Comments

  • James says:

    These people that commit such atrocities are a scourge against civilization and the concept of humanity itself.
    It’s time for US to “synchronize” our intelligence assets with those of the rest of the civilized world whether they be with those of India or Russia or Israel or Interpol or wherever.
    This is not a conventional nor a cold war and it’s time our intelligence agencies got out of cold war or conventional war mode and turned this into a smart war strategy involving the “laws of nations” (as set forth in the US Constitution)

  • ArneFufkin says:

    I think the gist of the Umarov allegory is that the rest of the jihadi world are black bulls and that the Islamic Caucasus Emirates are the isolated white bull discarded to the infidel wolves.
    Or something like that.

  • BullsEye says:

    I just can’t believe this quote from Dokka’s speech:
    “Everybody should know – war is war, and wars have their own methods, be they good or bad.”
    So he is admitting that killing civilians is not so good/halaal, but that’s no issue for him at all! Hell, those Russians must surely all be supportive of Chechnyans getting slaughtererd, right? His ignorance is no surprise; self-righteousness is the father of arrogance.
    Well, it looks like Dokka (in the photo) and I are both whistling the intro to Guns N’ Roses song “Patience” – it’s just a matter of time before this hypocritical mass-murderer is killed by the Russian security forces.

  • TLA says:

    It’ll be interesting to see if the persecution of a jihadist’s siblings has any effect on their determination to conduct these operations. I hope the Russians keep them in prison indefinitely as a way of pursuing this.

  • vito says:

    So much for West that once was fond of all Chechen plight! Here in the West it never bothered anyone to see what happened in pre-war Chechnya with all non-chechen population and later on with captured as hostages/war prisoners russian civilians and soldiers by Umarov’s and likes, which by the way they meticulously recorded on video – rapes, beheadings, tortures etc. …
    but for West the villain is vile Russian Army and Chechens not bandits/terrorists but rather noble warriors, “freedom fighter” that later were selling people for slaves in Grozny in mid-90s on a City Market …
    Just curious – where Umarov got M-16? if i’m not mistaking it’s M-16 barrel, or is it?

  • Neonmeat says:

    @ Vito
    Personally I didn’t even know about the conflict in Chechnya until I discovered it a few years ago after reading Arkady Babchenckos excellent account of the war, ‘One Soldiers War in Chechnya’.
    The Chechen war does not really fit the media narrative the West has at the moment and is not widely reported at all so I think people can be excused for not caring as most don’t even know about it.
    Whereas I could feel sympathy for the ‘freedom fighters’ if this was solely a war of independence, the tactics and methods used by them are abhorrent, however we cannot overlook the fact that in this war atrocity has answered atrocity as each side out does each others brutality for revenge.

  • Bungo says:

    TLA said : “It’ll be interesting to see if the persecution of a jihadist’s siblings has any effect on their determination to conduct these operations. I hope the Russians keep them in prison indefinitely as a way of pursuing this.”
    That’s what the Colombians did to Pablo Escobar’s family. It worked like a charm. It’s a shame Western intelligence agencies don’t target terrorist’s families in the same fashion. That’s the only sort of thing these people react to.
    Viyo said : “So much for West that once was fond of all Chechen plight!”
    Don’t even go there Vito. The West is firmly behind Russia’s anti-terrorist operations. We often wish we could operate with such freedom and latitude. You’re probably referring to the stupid antics of such self-righteous human rights activist organizations like Amnesty International. Very few people in the West listen to those kooks.

  • vito says:

    Dear Neonmeat ..
    setting aside fruitless debate about “freedom fighters”, Russian army’s war atrocity was always answered grossly disproportionate in terms of treatment of Russian civilian or military prisoners captured by bandits … this is a FACT confirmed by rebels themselves on their websites where they post out such videos or pictures, while their Russian atrocities facts are always questionable similarly like Taliban propaganda against coalition forces in Afghanistan today, while i’m myself not denying atrocities took place at hand of military in Chechnya, but rather put it in different perspective – it’s war and civilian casualties unavoidable, which is always tragic regardless of victims etnicity … Army became a hostage of its own government that betrayed her when army needed support most, especially in 1st war.

  • Vitaliy says:

    One issue justifying attacks against civilians as their being part of a war is that it does not correlate directly with the actions it is supposed to reciprocate.
    Western Militaries kill civilians by accident, by off atrocities which are discouraged and almost always punished by the commanding officers, and unfortantely, as acceptable collateral damage in targeting military personnel and facilities. They don’t actually TARGET civilians.
    Suicide terrorists often target civilians specifically. Hence, the logic–you kill our civilians so why don’t we have a right to kill yours is flawed. When Western militaries discount the civilian casualties, as dismal as it is, it is perceived as necessary for the operation. When terrorists kill civilians ON PURPOSE, it does little to highlight their cause or to bring about pressure on the governments they are trying to coerce.
    For, unfortunately as it is, Western governments view small civilian casualties the cost of doing business as much as foreign civilian casualties in war.
    Please see the CPOST blog on Umarov and other issues relating to suicide terrorism.
    http://cpost.uchicago.edu/blog/2011/03/09/doku-umarovs-new-video-four-bulls-and-the-continuing-struggle/#more-721

  • Goatweed says:

    Umarov is playing the genocide card, is he assuming the Russians won’t go to genocide?

  • vito says:

    Dear Neonmeat ..
    Setting aside fruitless debate about “freedom fighters” in Chechnya, Albania etc.(btw they had a chance to show themselves now – latest incident in Germany just another event unfold – we’ll see more to come after we openly or not supported them, like Albanian separatists) , I must say that war there (in Chechnya) was a war of betrayed Army by its own government and grossly attacked by blind liberal propaganda, which never did good to resolve that conflict and still resonates as their prospective here in the West, while at the same time lowering or ignoring atrocities at hands of Chechen bandits before war and later till our days – and they (bandits) never even intended to conceal that – there’s ton of videos/pictures of them killing/torturing/beheading (alike their brethern from Taliban) and so on of defenseless russian civilian or war prisoners … their response was for most part always grossly disproportionate to so called army crimes against Chechen civilian population (which i’m in no way denying, but rather put it in a different perspective) … so in short, no one really told the army side story and suffering at hands of Chechen bandits of civilian non-Chechen population in pre- and after war time, especially here in the West (here it was simplistic bad big menacing Russia against noble freedom fighting small Chechnya) … you mentioned you read Arkady Babchenckos ‘One Soldiers War in Chechnya’, but there are a lot more of his works to read about it if you could read in Russian (i can) and there’s better picture to see of who they fought in Chechnya … if you wish i’ll sent to you other links to read about too

  • Vito says:

    @Bungo
    By saying West i didn’t mean people like you or Neonmeat, i meant mainstream media which shapes public opinions and often serves as government channels of influence and propoganda … i definitely wish to see some sort of close cooperation from both Russia and US on taking down bad guys like Umarov, Mullo Omar and others of their cohorts, but i think sadly there are people there on both side who are still in bonds of Cold War stereotypes hampering common efforts

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